1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to providing location determination features to subscribers of a location determination system. More particularly, the present invention is related to use, via the location determination system, of a location determining device configured for incorporation in consumer products such as vehicles, pet collars, footwear, mobile telephones, personal digital assistants (PDA), handheld computers, and for other uses as described herein.
2. Related Art
Tracking technology and location determination is an expanding field. Current developments in tracking technology and methodologies are largely based upon handheld tracking devices that use Global Positioning System (GPS) technology. These approaches, however, are limited by inherent limitations of GPS based systems.
For example, GPS systems require a clear sight-to-sky between a hand held device's receiver antenna and at least one orbiting GPS satellite. When this line-of-sight becomes obstructed, for example, by buildings, trees or largely anything that can obstruct sunlight, the reliability of GPS based location determination is significantly decreased.
Another tracking system uses cell triangulation. Although cell triangulation essentially works everywhere a cell phone works and is more robust that GPS, cell phone triangulation is less accurate that GPS.
Another significant limitation of current handheld location determination approaches is the lack of variety of location determination based services available to wireless subscribers. For example, beyond E911 and similar geo-location functions, users have limited ability to use one wireless device to efficiently determine location of another wireless device.
What is needed therefore, are dual-mode location determination approaches that can overcome the aforementioned deficiencies and limitations. What is also needed are location determination devices that can be incorporated into various articles, including consumer products, for the purpose of tracking and/or location determination using cellular triangulation and/or a global positioning system (GPS). Finally, what is needed is a variety of personal location determination services that can be provided to wireless subscribers.